Artist Statement
My research approaches the animal as a timeless archive situated between biological organism, cultural resource, and object of human projection. It is an exploration of the living as an archive in transformation, between biological traces and symbolic constructions, revealing how societies simultaneously build and destroy the mythologies that recount life on Earth.
These creatures belong as much to biology and paleontology as to myth: they are anchored in the traces of extinct species, in the pests we despise, in the animals we venerate without knowing them, in those we invent to cope with our ancient fears.
On the backs of these animals, I place their metallic bones like a trophy, a suit of armor.
Their skeleton is more than an anatomical vestige. It is a cultural language, a motif, a symbolic relic that our societies project onto the animal to sacralize it, accuse it, classify it, or imagine it. Helping the viewer to imagine the trace that our species will leave in the soil for thousands of years, and the place it will give to the rest of Earth’s inhabitants in this pantheon, which will be exhibited in the museums of the future.
Biography
Virginie Gribouilli was born in France, raised by an amateur mammalogist mother and a grandmother who was a jeweller and an amateur artist. She studied applied arts to become a graphic designer and illustrator. Fate brought her into contact with cold porcelain and sculpture, and this definitively changed her professional goals.
In 2018, after successfully participating in exhibitions in France and Geneva, she won the People’s Choice Award at an exhibition in Ville-La Grand (74) and decided to pursue her art professionally.
She began to develop her own mythology and refine her style and approach. Through social media, she began to build a sincere and lasting relationship with her audience.
Selected to participate in the Art sur le fil exhibition in Alençon in 2022, she was a finalist for the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize two years in a row (2022 and 2023). In 2023, she won the sculpture prize at the Salon de la petite mer in Riantec (56).
In 2024, she began exhibiting in galleries abroad: in New Zealand, Chicago, and California. She was also featured in the art book “Infected by Art,” volumes 13 and 14, and received an honorable mention at the 2024 Infected by Art Art Prize.
In 2025, she won the Susannah Kelly Art Award: “Artists of Great Potential,” which gave her the opportunity to exhibit in Portland, Oregon.
Her works were acquired by the Naia Museum in Rochefort-en-Terre (56).
Her work is now part of private collections in France and the United States, and is gradually being acquired internationally, thanks to the development of her digital presence and collaborations with players in the art market.
Editions
Infected by Art issue 13 -2024
Infected by Art issue 12 -2023
Beautiful Bizarre issue 40 – 2023
Art Prizes and Distinctions
Honorary prize at Infected by art competition for presenting Fox Osseus spiritus
Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize 2022- finalist
Press
Bored Panda : “This Artist Creates Porcelain Sculptures So Evocative They Feel Like Relics From Another World”
The Heroine journey of Virginie Gribouilli : interview
Beautiful Bizarre 2023 : “2023 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize Finalists share their success stories”
Beautiful Bizarre 2022: “Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize Finalists share their success stories”
Ouest france : Virginie Gribouilli, sculptrice, va exposer ses œuvres en Ille-et-Vilaine, à Chantepie
Ouest France : Virginie Gribouilli, lauréats de l’édition 2023
La Gazette du centre Morbihan : Cette artiste du Morbihan est en train de séduire le monde entier
Fragil.org Exposition Vestiges d’ailleurs de Virginie Gribouilli : “Créer, c’est donner vie, mais de manière figée”
NAIA Museum présentation de l’artiste
© 2018-2026 Virginie Gribouilli